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English
Etymology
From Latin fascinare ("to bewitch"), possibly from Ancient Greek βασκαίνιεν (baskaínien, “to speak ill of; to curse”)[1]
Morphologically fascinate + -ion
Pronunciation
Noun
fascination (countable and uncountable, plural fascinations)
- (archaic) The act of bewitching, or enchanting
- Synonyms: enchantment, witchcraft
1914 November, Louis Joseph Vance, “An Outsider ”, in Munsey’s Magazine, volume LIII, number II, New York, N.Y.: The Frank A Munsey Company, , published 1915, →OCLC, chapter I (Anarchy), page 373, column 2:Little disappointed, then, she turned attention to "Chat of the Social World," gossip which exercised potent fascination upon the girl's intelligence.
- The state or condition of being fascinated.
To my fascination, the skies turned all kinds of colours.
1934, Robert Ervin Howard, The People of the Black Circle:Sliding down the shaft he lay still, the spear jutting above him its full length, like a horrible stalk growing out of his back.
The girl stared down at him in morbid fascination, until Khemsa took her arm and led her through the gate.
1913, Elizabeth Kimball Kendall, A Wayfarer in China:But the compensations are many: changing scenes, long days out of doors, freedom from the bondage of conventional life, and above all, the fascination of living among peoples of primitive simplicity and yet of a civilization so ancient that it makes all that is oldest in the West seem raw and crude and unfinished.
- Something which fascinates.
Life after death had always been a great fascination to him.
1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XXI, in Francesca Carrara. , volume I, London: Richard Bentley, , (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 244:Though more thoughtful than Madame de Mercœur, yet it asked far more knowledge of society—that wilderness of small intricacies—for her to penetrate into the motives of those who seemed so suddenly struck with her fascination; but she was too clear-headed to be deceived, and set it all down under one general belief in caprice.
Derived terms
Translations
the act of fascinating, bewitching, or enchanting; enchantment; witchcraft
the state or condition of being fascinated
that which fascinates; a charm; a spell
Translations to be checked
References
- ^ "Fascination" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed., Vol. 10. 1911.
French
Pronunciation
Noun
fascination f (plural fascinations)
- fascination
Further reading
Swedish
Noun
fascination c
- fascination (intense interest or something that causes it)
Declension
References